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Where Big Data Jobs Will Be In 2015

Demand for Computer Systems Analysts with big data expertise increased 89.9% in the last twelve months and 85.40% for Computer and Information Research Scientists.

Demand for Python programming expertise increased 96.9% in big-data related positions in the last twelve months.

These and other key insights are from a recent analysis completed of big data hiring trends using WANTED Analytics, the leading provider of data analytics on the workplace. For purposes of this analysis, the term “big data” is comprised of the four skill sets of data analysis, data acquisition, data mining and data structures. The WANTED Analytics taxonomy references these skill sets when queries are made on the term “big data”.

The company currently maintains a database of more than one billion unique job listings and is collecting hiring trend data from more than 150 countries. WANTED Analytics has never been a client, they provided complimentary access based on my requesting a trial account. Many Forbes readers are interested in staying current on big data hiring trends, which led me to complete this analysis.

Key Take-aways include the following:

Demand for big data expertise across a range of occupations saw significant growth over the last twelve months. There was a 123.60% jump in demand for Information Technology Project Managers with big data expertise, and an 89.8% increase for Computer Systems Analysts. The following table provides an overview of the distribution of open positions by occupation and the percentage growth in job demand over time.

The five leading industries with the most job openings requiring big data expertise include Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (27.14%), Information Technologies (18.89%), Manufacturing (12.35%), Retail Trade (9.62%) and Sustainability, Waste Management & Remediation Services (8.20%). The following graphic shows the distribution of open positions between September 1, 2014 to today, December 29, 2014:

The Hiring Scale is 76 for jobs that require big data skills with 12 candidates per job opening as of December 29, 2014. The higher the Hiring Scale score, the more difficult it is for employers to find the right applicants for open positions. Nationally an average job posting for an IT professional with cloud computing expertise is open just 47 days.

San Jose – Sunnyvale – Santa Clara, CA, San Francisco – Oakland – Fremont, CA, and Washington – Arlington – Alexandria, DC are the top three U.S. employment markets for big data related jobs as of today. Mapping the distribution of job volume, salary range, candidate supply, posting period and hiring scale by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or states and counties is supported by WANTED Analytics and shown in the following graphic. A summary of the top twenty employment markets is also shown following the map:

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) have the most open big data-related positions today. Cisco, its supplier, partner and support ecosystem companies have 3,613 related big data positions available. The following table shows the top ten big data employers today, the distribution of jobs, and the number of new jobs added over the last year.

Python programming (96.90%), Linux expertise (76.60%) and Structured Query Language (SQL) (76%) are the three most in-demand skills in positions that mention big data as a requirement. The following table provides an overview of the top 10 most in-demand skills: